bolt of lightening hit him, he knew there and then that one day I would have an airbrush. After leaving hospital Ingo went back to live with his parents but obviously he had to find a way of earning a living and a job where he was standing all day was out of the question. So he started working for Harmony accordion makers little did he know then that this company would be a big influence later on in his career. In his spare time he was still painting and he re- kindled his acquaintance with the biker friends by this time the bikers had seen images of painted motorbikes. Now Ingo knew that this was all airbrush work but there was no way he could get his hands on an airbrush to practice. With a lot of trial and error he finally found a way of painting their tanks by using a combination of the spray bottles that came from his mother all those years ago and ceramic paint which was the only paint he could get his hands on at the time that would adhere to scuffed metal. So the custom painter was born.


What happened next was extraordinary he followed the road to the point where the flag was and it turned out to be a sanc- tuary for endangered animals. It was run by an old East Ger- man gentleman who had escaped to the west in 1968 the year Ingo was born. The man who ran the place was an old army dog trainer who when he finished his military service had immigrated to Canada. To quote Ingo “it’s like I have a sort of sixth sense” because after having a conversation with the man it came to light that he had a wolf pack that he was trying to save from being hunted down. There was one particular male wolf that had become use to having humans around and Ingo was asked if he would like to stroke him. I saw a glint in his eyes when he was telling me this and I knew that he did not have to be asked twice. After his Canadian trip he returned to Germany where he had some commissions waiting for him. One thing you must remember is that all the work that he was getting was purely word of mouth and he was not advertising his quality and high standard was speaking for itself.


In 1989 when the Berlin wall finally came down the company Harmony decided to move west laying off a lot of workers, Ingo being one of them. The first thing that he did was to visit West Germany and with the extra money that he earned from paint- ing bikes he purchased his first airbrush set. The first ever image that he airbrushed was of a women war- rior riding a horse with three wolfs running along side. Pretty soon the word got around and work started to come in includ- ing from Harmony his old company. After quite a bit of nego- tiation with his old boss they agreed that he would airbrush a series of accordions’ for the company. He had finally earned enough money to take a vacation and Canada was his destina- tion. He hired a motor home in Toronto and made his way to Ottawa, on the way he saw an old East German flag flying obvi- ously he had to check it out.


Ingo has traveled extensively around Europe working on vari- ous airbrush commissions as well as in other countries such as Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Switzerland, and Norway, to name but a few. When he mentioned Norway once again I saw that glint in his eye and a smile on his face, I should have known that another wolf story was coming. After he had finished spraying two bikes and a car he decided to take a trip to the coast to observe the whales and to do some sketching for reference. On his way he came across a sign saying Arctic Zoo and yeah you guessed it he followed the arrows along a dirt track which opened out into a clearing where there was only a wood cabin. Before long a guy dressed in camouflage showed up noticing right off Ingo’s portrayal of wolfs on the side of his van. Once again Ingo had found someone that was caring for wolfs and he got the chance to get in amongst the pack. It is hard to explain he said but whenever I am around these magnificent beasts they just seem to be at ease maybe I have a special


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